Guy's gridiron photo swept all before it!

Daphne will probably be best remembered with the Eastside connection and the factory which produced Brightwell Dispensers under the guidance of husband John.

Let us switch to the nee Gravett part of the connection.

I remember when the family came to live at the bottom of Second Avenue on the western side, their back garden being quite long and joining on to our front garden in Hillcrest Road, the section not made up until after World War II. Father Sid, was a Customs clerk, a considerable artist and cricketer. Also he was much involved with local dramatic societies and he had been a soldier in that terrible first war. Son Guy did his best to reconstruct the battle front in the back garden. This was virgin soil and I expect Sid was glad the crust was being broken for him.

Mother was in the lady's hockey team and involved with affairs of the town. Daughter Daphne just charmed her way when growing up, but as I left the town in 1937 and the war began two years later, I lost touch.

Guy was quite an artist, too, but he made photography his world wide profession.

His most famed work, locally, was when his father walking home up Railway Quay, saw the gridiron being scrubbed with a bass broom, with the water just over it and concealing view of the framework. He got home and suggested Guy got down there quickly with his camera. He did and the picture featured in the American magazine Life which remarked that 'only the British would sweep the Channel'.

Of course, this operation was most necessary for slime on the wooden framework could be fatal for men working on the hulls of vessels when the tide was low.

I believe the worker with the broom is still alive in Newhaven, but the gridiron has been allowed to rot and collapse.

My picture shows the Isle of Wight paddle steamer Whippingham sitting on the gridiron, with the water just below the level it would need to be to be scrubbed. Ahead is the Brighton VI of 2,875 tonnes which also used the gridiron as did all the passenger steamers, but not the larger car ferries which were to follow.

I took the photo in 1960 and three years later moved back to live here.

PETER BAILEY

Peter Bailey is curator of the Newhaven Local and Maritime Museum based in its own fascinating premises in the grounds of Paradise Park in Avis Road, Newhaven. Summer opening hours are daily, 2-4pm or by arrangement. Admission 1 (accompanied children free). Contact the curator on 01273 514760. Log on to the website at www.newhavenmuseum.co.uk